Longmont City Council this week gave a cold reception to a proposal to create a passenger rail district that could bring a long-awaited train to Boulder County and Longmont.
Council voted unanimously to ask lawmakers sponsoring Senate Bill 21-138 to take the legislation off the table, with Councilmember Joan Peck leading the criticism.
Peck told councilmembers the bill was premature, largely because it included no immediate mechanism to fund a rail system. “Without federal funding, there is no rail,” Peck said.
Lawmakers propose that the Front Range passenger rail district would stretch from New Mexico to Wyoming and include Boulder County. The district would finance, build, operate and maintain an interconnected rail system and work hand-in-hand with the Regional Transportation District and Amtrak, the country’s passenger rail system, according to the bill.
Peck said the plan looks familiar to the 2004 FasTrack’s plan, which produced rail in the central and southern metro area but left the northwest rail system unfunded. “The southern part of the district got more and more,” Peck said, leaving no funding for the northern section of the district.
The RTD Board of Directors this month approved a study of a peak service plan for the 35.3 mile-long northwest corridor between Denver and Boulder County. The plan will take about two years to finish at a cost about $8 million, according to Bill Van Meter, RTD’s assistant general manager of planning.
The Colorado Front Range Passenger Rail Commission is also proposing building a passenger rail system from Pueblo to Fort Collins.
